Eagles' Chip Kelly expects playoff berth

AP Photo
Eagles coach Chip Kelly slipped during his media availability Thursday and said “during the playoffs” when asked about Connor Barwin’s health, a sign that Philadelphia figure to be playing meaningful football in January.

During his media availability Thursday morning, Kelly, the most successful rookie Eagles head coach since realignment intimated his team would be back in the playoffs.

The lofty expectations popped out in response to a question about who would be the next man up at outside linebacker if veteran Connor Barwin was shaken up.

“We don’t do anything like that,” Kelly said. “I’ll mention it today and probably 16 times during the year and during the playoffs is we have a training session today, we have a training session tomorrow, we have a training session Saturday so that’s when we’ll kind of sit down and kind of figure everything out.”

Advertisement

Consider “during the playoffs” a sign the Eagles figure to be around for the duration. It’s no secret the Eagles are heavily favored to win the NFC East. That would get them into the tournament.

Last year Kelly guided the Eagles to a 10-6 record and a division pennant. The New Orleans Saints ousted the Birds from the playoffs.

Then there’s former Saints running back Darren Sproles, who ignited the fantasy football side of Kelly.

“I don’t know if you guys play fantasy leagues but if someone said ‘hey, you get a chance to get Darren Sproles,’ I’m in,” Kelly said. “It wasn’t an indication of anybody on our roster. We really believed he was a dynamic football player. I’ve seen him first-hand whether it’s coming out of the backfield or as a receiver.”

The Eagles’ defense lacks shutdown qualities, yet remains opportunistic. The defense could find itself facing a lot of teams playing catchup starting with the Jacksonville Jaguars in the opener Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.

Defensively the Jaguars have a solid front 7. The offense is a work in progress. It’s led by quarterbacks Chad Henne and Blake Bortles, the latter a rookie first-round pick. The Jags averaged 15.2 points in the preseason.

The Eagles averaged 32.7 points in the preseason. They’re favored by 10 1/2 points and the over-under is 52 points.

Preseason or not, those numbers are indicative of a blowout.

“Our thing is we don’t care what anyone expects,” Eagles veteran guard Evan Mathis said. “If we care about what everyone expects we wouldn’t have had 10 wins last year. We would have come out and had a year to regroup and grow. But we didn’t do that. We don’t care what anyone thinks. We’re the kind of team that stays focused on the task at hand and when we get into a game nothing else matters.”

Kelly’s confidence in his team is interesting in that he called his first NFL season, one in which the Eagles finished 10-7 including the postseason “Just OK.” Kelly lost just 7 seven games as the head coach at Oregon. His overall record was 46-7 (.868).

In Year 2 of the program, Eagles players sound equally driven.

“I think he’s totally the same but there’s a little bit of difference in how the team is run,” Barwin said. “I think last year he kind of ran the team. He showed us how he wanted it run as the leader. And now he’s kind of, there are leaders in this locker room that know what he wants. He’s kind of handed some of that off to us as far as how the locker room goes and all that good stuff.”